The original "Monsters, Inc." was sweet, profound, witty and definitely in no need of a sequel when it came out in 2001.
But time does seem to make the heart grow fonder, as Pixar has discovered, and "Monsters University" is a welcome prequel to the classic film that helped launch Pixar as one of Hollywood's greatest animation studios.
"Monsters University" is told from the point of view of Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal, "Parental Guidance"), the lovably cocky and neurotic underdog who wants more than anything to be a professional "scarer."
However, his diminutive stature and generally cute physique makes it hard for anyone to take him seriously. He enrolls in Monsters University to follow his dream, but makes enemies out of his future best friend Sulley (John Goodman, "The Hangover Part III"), an arrogant, cocksure frat boy.
Their bickering eventually gets them kicked out of the "scaring" program by the intimidating Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren, "Hitchcock"), who looks oddly like an animated version of Professor McGonagall.
In order to win back their spots in the school, they need to win an annual college "scaring" competition with the typical misfit frat Oozma Kappa.
The movie is stuffed full of clever hints and Easter Eggs toward the original "Monsters, Inc.," which does sadly drain on the plot a bit when the movie becomes too obsessed with being self-referential.
Thankfully "Monsters University" rarely oversteps the bounds of its self-aware story, bringing in a fair amount of plot suspense and character development to balance out the inside jokes.
The benefit of releasing the sequel/prequel 12 years later is that most of the original fans are in college themselves.
"Monsters University" presents itself as almost a caricature of the typical college movie. There's the study montage, the Greek life, the frat houses and even the New Age philosophers.
The melding of the college movie tropes with the kiddy Pixar optimism is such a weird clash of ideas that it just works.
Unfortunately, the movie follows the college tropes so closely that it constricts the story. The tropes of of the band of misfits overcoming their differences, the two enemies becoming best friends and even the stock frat boy characters are all too familiar to anyone over 10, and not universal enough that anyone under 10 could truly enjoy it.
The supporting characters in Oozma Kappa are vivacious and colorful (quite literally), but they have difficulty in overcoming the staleness of the plot.
It's the chemistry of the original characters of Mike, Sully and even Randy (Steve Buscemi, "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone") that bring the movie all together. The joy at seeing such beloved characters and the ease at which the actors slip back into the roles are the bread and butter of "Monsters University."
"Monsters University" is a charming and clever entry to the "Monsters, Inc." universe, but it does suffer from the genre that it has settled itself in.
And while the characters of Mike and Sulley are fun to watch, the film doesn't recapture the sheer magic of the "Toy Story" trilogy or even the original "Monsters, Inc." film itself.
hbui@theeagleonline.com
